An important sign of an athlete's maturity and confidence is his ability to set goals. The only real goals of a child learning to fence is (rightly) to learn something new and have fun. He may dream of one day becoming Olympic Champion--and such dreams are important for excitement and motivation, but they cannot yet be called goals. The mature (or maturing) fencer must move beyond dreaming. In order to transform a dream into a goal, the athlete has to commit to a plan. You may dream ...
"Being bad at something is no reason to give it up." -Alf Being a coach I of course want my fencers to do well, to perform actions correctly, to win. But more importantly however, and prior to any of this I want them to enjoy the sport. Most fencers I teach come from a very sedentary lifestyle, so getting them to wield a blade helps to disguise the fact they are getting good exercise, learning a technical skill and maybe even learning to think about what another ...
The last day of competition was a really good day for me until my last DE. I was in a pool with Lisa Brown, Dawn Wilson, Delia Turner, Karen Lum, C. Randall, and Diane Hiatt. I'd fenced Delia and Karen the day before in V50 and I'd fenced Dawn more than a few times since she's a 2 hour drive away, but I hadn't fenced Randall in almost 2 years and I'd never fenced Hiatt. I tried something a little different this time, which is taking a book to the pool with me. I found ...
One of my small pet peeves (which I've had for a while) concerns Rule t.47, which defines the target in foil. More accurately, my peeve concerns referees and t.47, of which the pertinent part states: Originally Posted by Rule Book, t.47 The target in foil excludes the limbs and the head. It is confined to the trunk, the upper limit being the collar up to 6 cm above the prominences of the collar bones; at the sides to the seams of the sleeves, which should cross the head of the humerus; and the lower limit ...
I've been thinking a great deal about different types of on guards, or perhaps I should say differences in on guard positions. I don't want to fall into the habit of many eastern martial arts and have stance A, stance B, etc. Instead, I want my fencers to understand what different variations in their positions do to them. While I do have a general idea of what I want, I don't just tell them "stand like this." Instead, I focus on individual parts of the body, their state and position ...
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